July 10, 2010
BAKIO, Spain — University of Kentucky men’s tennis junior-to-be Alex Musialek recently completed a successful week overseas, advancing to the quarterfinals of the singles main draw and winning the finals of the doubles main draw in the International Tennis Federation Spain F24 Futures event at Club Kiroleta.
Musialek, who qualified for the main draw after defeating Inigo Santos Alvarez De Mo 6-2, 6-1 and Ivan Arenas-Gualda 6-3, 6-4, both from Spain, in the singles qualifying rounds, rolled through the first and second rounds of the main draw. Musialek took out Emilio Rodriguez-Navarro of Spain 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in comeback fashion in the first round and then advanced to the quarterfinals by beating sixth-seeded and ATP World No. 568 Georgi Rumenov Payakov of Spain 7-6 (4), 6-4. In the quarterfinals, Musialek fell 6-3, 6-2 to third-seeded and ATP World No. 479 Fabrice Martin of France. Musialek and Martin were the only two Frenchmen left in the singles main draw.
Although the Wildcat player fell out of the singles main draw in the quarterfinals, he kept his hopes for a tournament title alive in doubles where he and partner Alexis Heugas advanced through tough competition to make the finals. The Frenchmen posted straight-sets wins over the Spanish tandems of Markel Lorono Bilbao and Inigo Santos-Fernandez 6-1, 6-3 in the first round and second-seeded Roberto Ortega-Olmedo and Rumenov Payakov 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Musialek and Heugas posted a 6-4, 6-3 win against Marko Danis and Jiri Krkoska to advance to the finals.
In the finals, Musialek and Heugas faced the No. 1-seeded Abraham Gonzalez-Jimenez and Claudio Grassi. The back-and-forth match started with Musialek and Heugas winning the first set 7-5 but after the duo lost the second set 6-4, the two doubles tandems went to a decisive tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Musialek and Heugas jumped out early and never looked back to gather the 10-4 win and claim the tournament title.
Musialek, who ended the season ranked No. 48 in the International Tennis Association singles rankings, posted an impressive season for Kentucky, playing at No. 2 singles. The native of Dax, France, ended the season with a strong 20-7 record in dual matches while recording the best Southeastern Conference record on the team at 8-2. Musialek was selected to participate in the NCAA Singles Championship, giving UK its second player in the field for the first time since 2000.
The Frenchman posted some of the most impressive wins of the season, defeating the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked players in college tennis. The sophomore’s win over No. 3 Michael Shabaz helped lead to UK’s historic victory against No. 2 Virginia while his victory over No. 2 J.P. Smith of Tennessee helped him claim the Crimson Tide Fall Championships title. For his efforts, Musialek was named second team All-SEC.
